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Whiteplains Plantation (SC99)

Need to get in touch with a person at Whiteplains? Here is the contact information.
Whiteplains Public Information:
Don Cook 100 Cirrus Way Gilbert, South Carolina 29054
(803) 543-8108 Email: duckey123@gmail.com

Monday, September 17, 2018

Last night, in the midst of the tumult of the storm…those who loved Eric Demaray gathered around him in a hospital room…holding his hand…as he made the transition out of the Seen Realm into the Unseen.

And now even as we let him go, tears flowing out of our hearts…we recognize a deep need to be together, to celebrate Eric, to remember him and his life story. And we know that the family will need to be gathered in and strengthened and cared for.

To this end, we will be gathering this Saturday at the Ballee’s hangar at 5:00p. Please, please, let either Cece or I know by Wednesday noon if you will be coming so that Linda has a head-count for the food, as she desires to cater the meal. You are invited to bring a desert. Tea, lemonade and water will be provided. If any of you can help us set up the hangar at 1:00p and clean up afterwards, we would be most grateful.

A basket will be set out to collect notes of stories or memories of Eric, along with words of encouragement. There will also be a flying tribute to Eric after dinner.

Blessings to each of you as we continue to come alongside Linda and the family.

Eric Demaray passed away last night at the age of 46 from Cancer. We are planning a party in his honor here at Whiteplains plantation. Eric did not want a funeral but a party after he died. Susan Ramsey asked to plan the party. We would love to invite you all this Saturday to celebrate Eric and his life. We are having it this Saturday while his family is here. We will be sending out more information later in the week.

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Science fiction??? Read and find out.

MARY GRADY

A person with a microchip implant can now pilot a swarm of drones by sending signals directly from their brain, an ability that also should work for full-scale aircraft, according to researchers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The technology was discussed at a recent symposium held by DARPA, in Maryland. “The signals from those aircraft can be delivered directly back to the brain so that the brain of that user [or pilot] can also perceive the environment,” said Justin Sanchez, director of DARPA’s biological technology office.
DARPA officials at the symposium also said they have advanced the technology so a user now can steer multiple jets at once, according to a report from DefenseOne.com. Working with a paralyzed volunteer, the researchers were able to not only send but also receive signals from the aircraft. “It’s taken a number of years to try and figure this out,” Sanchez said. The work builds on research from 2015, when a paralyzed woman was able to steer a virtual F-35 Joint Strike Fighter by sending signals from her brain using only a small, surgically-implanted microchip.

We all may still be waiting for our flying cars and jetpacks, but there’s no question the future has arrived, in ways more subtle but irrefutable. There was the live video of two SpaceX rockets landing on their tails in Florida earlier this year. There’s the imminent first flight of the giant Stratolaunch space plane. And now there’s Aireon, a network of satellites that will make it possible for any aircraft equipped with ADS-B to be tracked anywhere on the planet. No need to send out search planes—a technician at a screen will pinpoint the site of the downed aircraft, and relay the coordinates to rescue teams within minutes.
The project was inspired, at least in part, by the loss of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, which went missing in 2014. Today, flights across the oceans or in polar regions lose touch with tracking systems, and ATC relies on pilot reports, and flight plans filed in advance, to estimate their position. When MH370 went silent, searchers had limited resources to work with, and 239 souls on board remain lost.
Wikipedia lists 43 flights that have gone missing since 1970, including balloons attempting to cross the Atlantic, DC-3s, private jets and cargo planes. A Piper Warrior vanished somewhere in British Columbia in 2017. That loss is a reminder that even here in the Western world, there are big blank spaces on the map where humans seldom tread.
One of the more famous GA losses in recent years was the disappearance in 2007 of Steve Fossett, the multiple-record-holding pilot who took off from Nevada on a solo pleasure flight in a Super Decathlon and never returned. Despite an online search by hundreds of volunteers who scrutinized Google Earth images for signs of the airplane, it was found by chance in 2008 when a hiker happened upon the site.
Presumably, once Aireon goes online next year, this kind of mystery will be a thing of the past. In another 10 or 20 years, the idea of a lost airplane will be as foreign as the rotary-dial phone or rabbit-ear TV antennas. But seldom does something good occur without a flip side. In this case, we lose a little of the awe and dread of living on Earth, the sense that there are places on the planet, wide and empty, that remain unknown and unknowable. It’s a small price to pay for saved lives, but it’s a price worth noting.